The Fallen Castellan
by Keyblade King 12
Summary: Luke Castellan has finally been given the chance at his own prophecy. If he succeeds, he'll reach the Isle of the Blest. But if he fails, Hades will doom him to misery for the rest of his existence. No more OCs needed!
1. Chapter 1

_Author's note- Hi. This is Keyblade King 12 and I'm finally doing a story that isn't about video games and anime. I've been thinking about this story ever since I read the 'Red Pyramid' and then reading 'Son of Neptune' finally gave me a few of the finishing touches I was looking before starting this. So enjoy._

"Next!" Charon's high pitched cold voice sounded through my ears and for a few mind numbing moments, I had to think before I realised that Charon was referring to me. The ferryman of the Underworld was finally calling on me. After years of waiting in this grey, miserable lobby, this was the moment where I would finally be allowed to be judged by the council. My life would be weighed and he would be sent to whatever field the council thought he deserved to go to.

I turned my eyes upon the skeleton man. The man checked down at his clipboard and looked at all the information there ever was to know about me. It would have been a short, but surely an interesting read. Charon smiled, as he continued to read and then looked back at me. "Sorry about the wait kid. We've been pretty busy these days, but hey. Better late than never, right? Just through that elevator." Charon pointed to the elevator that stood at the end of the lobby. And I realised this was it. My fate would be decided. Either I would go to Punishment, Asphodel or Elysium.

I entered the elevator and immediately began to move forward. The whole thing began to dematerialise and for a moment I thought I was going to fall right into the River Stynx. But I realised it was just invisible and it was very much still there. For some reason, Hades must like the idea of scaring everyone who enters his domain. As if people weren't already afraid enough? I couldn't help to look down at the Stynx river. It hadn't changed much since the last time I had seen it. Still as full as rubbish as ever. Broken dreams and desires.

As I was watching the waters sway I saw my own dreams inside of it as well. A university diploma, a cell phone and a Tupperware box full of rotting sandwiches and cookies. Silent tears began sliding down my cheeks before I was ever aware of them. I wasn't really a person to cry, but seeing those things (which may seem silly to some people, I'm sure) just reminded me how much my life was a freaking mess. Oh well. I guess I didn't have to worry about that anymore.

I landed in the black sand and I continued my way to the gates of the Underworld. I saw the way straight to Asphodel and I saw the way straight to Hades' palace, guarded by Cerberus.

"Heya boy." I said, taking out a ball, which immediately commanded the three-headed beast's attention. I rubbed all of its heads, just as a friend of mine had once done. "Annabeth says hi. She misses you, but it's hard to visit these days, you know, unless you're dead." The dog pouted and bent down. He looked sad. It had been years since he had seen Annabeth, but it didn't seem like he was any less fond of her. That was actually pretty cute…or understandable. She was a very loveable person. And with that thought in mind, the thought of the blond haired, grey eyed girl, who in the end had truly saved my soul, I faced the Council.

I didn't see any familiar faces out of the three. Nobody was particularly famous and I wasn't impressed by the people who were in charge of my future. The leader stood up and addressed me. "Luke Castellan. You stand here today to face up to your crimes against the Gods. You allowed Kronos to take over your body and use it to launch an attack on Mount Olympus and the whole of Manhattan. You are responsible for the deaths of many innocent humans and godlings.

"But you also were able to plan to go against Kronos and defeat him at the cost of your own life. You did several acts for good, before turning to Kronos, who the council can admit influenced you. I do not believe you should be held responsible for your actions under his influence."

A second council member spoke up. "But it was under his own choice to follow Kronos and he well knew what the consequences for following such a monster. He had a many number of chances to escape from Kronos, but he never took them. The actions he did were under his own choice."

The final council member stood up, apparently outraged. "Now, now. This child is no more than the victim of prophecy. The Great Prophecy had been told years before his birth, he had no choice in the matter, but to follow his destiny and be the one to join and eventually defeat Kronos. I would have him sentenced to Elysium."

The first member nodded, but he looked sad. "Luke. It seems that the council is at a majority vote to allow you to spend your days in Elysium or be reborn into the human world. However, there are people here who have other roles in mind for you." I couldn't follow what was going on. The council members spoke quickly and in my numb state, I just couldn't listen to what they were talking about, but after a few seconds I realised that I was allowed to go to Elysium. I had heard of the council taking days at a time to decide someone's fate, but they had decided mine in a matter of minutes. And now there were other people who wanted me. Who were getting in my way of happiness? Who would be so arrogant that they thought they could rule my…afterlife?

"Hello Son." Hermes entered the court room, which had now become just a simple round room, as the council had disappeared at some point, to be replaced by a group of Gods and a mortal girl with flaming red hair.

"Hermes! What? Why are you here?" Hermes looked upset, by my reaction.

"Now, now. Is that anyway to treat your father? After all, I'm taking time out of my schedule to be here personally. Otherwise you'd be hearing all this from Zeus."

"Hearing what? What's going on?" My eyes scanned the other group of people. I recognised the red haired girl as a girl that Percy Jackson had dated. Rachel something or other. I had no idea why she was here. Among the Gods were Apollo, Hades, Zeus, Hera and one that had green skin and seemed to be mummified. "Wait a sec? Are you Osiris? The Egyptian God?"

The man nodded and smiled proudly. "That's correct Luke. Do not worry. All will be explained soon. I can assure you you're perfectly safe. We wish to talk to you that is all."

The presence of an Egyptian God confused me enough that I just couldn't take it anymore. I stood my ground and waited for the Gods to explain themselves. Hermes smiled at Osiris as a thank you, and then he turned back to me. His face suddenly solemn.

"Luke. Hm…where do I start?" He said to himself. There were hissing sounds coming from his cell phone. Hermes brought it out and I could hear the high voices of George and Martha. The twin snakes that in intertwined around my father's symbol of power.

"Start with Kronos. That's more familiar." Martha said.

"Too familiar." Argued George. "You should start with Gaia or even Apophis. He needs to know more about that sort of stuff."

Hermes considered this. "Alright. Alright. Luke…after your death, a prophecy was delivered to the Greek half-bloods. It told them that they would need to defeat Gaia, who rose up against the Gods, with the giants. Percy Jackson was involved, along with a few other Greek and Roman Half-Bloods." Hermes paused, seemingly for dramatic effect. Then his eyebrows burrowed, as he looked at my expression; completely unfazed. It didn't surprise me that Percy was involved in yet another Great Prophecy. I had always thought that his life would have been too easy. There was no great tragedy there yet. Almost all heroes had a worse fate that the one that I had left Percy to live out.

Yet this wasn't why Hermes was so confused. "You're not surprised by the existence of Roman Half-Bloods…or even the Egyptian Gods. You recognised Osiris without hardly any hesitation. I know you're a hardened man, but honestly, you can't be that unemotional."

I rolled my eyes, astounded by my own father's stupidity. "And yet some people get you confused with Thoth. Of course I know about Romans and Egyptians! I didn't just gather Greek half-bloods when I was trying to bring my Kronos. There isn't enough to go around. There's loads more Romans, so we encountered a few on our way. I even found some Magicians, which is why I know about Osiris."

I put my head in my hands and shook it in disdain. Sometimes Hermes could be clever, strategic and powerful, but it seemed that whenever I was involved Hermes could never be much more than an absent minded, workaholic of a parental figure. Hermes looked upset about my outburst and took a step back.

Hera spoke up a bit. "I knew you shouldn't have been the one to talk to him. You underestimated Luke, right until the very end and now even beyond that. He obviously still hasn't forgiven you, either. Let someone else explain the situation."

Zeus looked at his wife, as if awaiting the order. "Oh not you dear." Hera said, waving her hand in dismissal. "You're not very good when it comes to these sorts of things. Giving out awards or making the call for battle is more your speed."

"I shall do it." Osiris said, although he looked rather awkward. Maybe it was because out of all the figures present here, he knew the littlest about me. I surely hadn't made the best of first impressions, but in my defence I was just about to go to heaven, before these guys had interrupted me.

"Well you see Master Castellan. Since your time, the worlds of the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians have been undergoing rapid change. The ancient forces of each of them were reawakening, threatening to destroy them all. We hoped that these were all just coincidence, but recently we have become unsure. The worlds have been intertwining with each other. The Greek and Roman Half Bloods were never meant to mix and surely the Egyptian world was never meant to mix with the others. That was one boundary that was never to be crossed, but we have learnt that some of your Gods, that were thought to have died have merely gone to sleep in our Ma'at. People who were meant to go to your Underworld have ended up in mine.

"These things shouldn't be happening, as I'm sure you are aware of. We, Gods, secretly met and discussed this. We came to the conclusion that the people of the 21st century were merely classing all of us as simply one category; mythology. But we now believe that someone is purposely trying to join our worlds. We believe that he must be the child of a God and a descendent of the Pharaohs."

I sat through this long explanation and took a deep breath. So this was what was happening in the world of the living. A dangerous, chaotic world where they were going to join together and possibly be destroyed in the process. The act of combining the world of what many mortals thought of as myth was a dangerous game and could end up destroying the Gods, in ways that weren't even conceivable to the immortals themselves. But there was still something bothering me. "What does this have to do with me? Surely you can handle this yourselves."

This time Zeus didn't ask for his wife's permission to speak. "We cannot interfere with the lives of mortals. You should know this. It is illegal for a God to take his hand against a mortal. The Egyptians also seem to hold this true, although some do seem to be taking this situation into their own hands. We would choose a living hero to take on this quest, but that is not what the fates have chosen for this time around."

Apollo and the Rachel girl finally came to the limelight. I had almost forgotten about their existence. "Luke." Rachel Elizabeth Dare began. "A few days ago, Percy Jackson attempted to take on the quest to rescue us from this figure. But the prophecy he received wasn't for him."

Apollo then brought out his lyre and, to the annoyance of all others present, began to sing. "Eight shall follow the fallen Castellan. To victory or failure he shall lead them. The two-faced one holds the key. The Myth Master shall bring misery." He looked pretty proud with himself, but then again, I didn't think that Apollo even knew the meaning of the word humility.

I sighed and looked crestfallen. "So that's it, huh?" I said, looking sadly at the Gods and the new oracle. "I have no choice. If this is what destiny has chosen for me, I can't do anything about it."

Hermes shifted uncomfortably. "Well, that's not exactly true. The prophecy just tells us about a fallen Castellan. It never specifically said you. Even Rachel says the role is open for more than one person. But I expected you to take it up. Um…" He looked over to Hades, who shrugged nonchalantly. Hermes smiled a little. "Luke, this was your second life. If you're reborn again, you can make it to the Isle of the Blest."

I blinked once. That information almost winded me. I had wanted to press for the Isle of the Blest, but to take on such a quest to do so… and there was something else in what Hermes was telling me. "Reborn? I can't just go through one of the doors and take back my old body?"

Hades laughed a little. "No can do kid. We've had enough trouble rearranging for those doors to be closed off. Besides you're old body's well gone. A hero can't take back his body, after their shrine has been burned. You'll need to reborn, but I think I can cut you a little deal here."

I froze, as did Hermes, before he turned to face Hades with a face of pure rage. "What are you talking about Hades? You agreed to help us, free of charge. What's this about a deal?"

The God of Death held up his hands, in surrender, but he had a mocking smile on his face. "Chill Hermes. I am going to help you. I arrange for Luke to be reborn today and I can help protect him from death, until the prophecy, but I can't just allow him to keep his memories right from the get go. It would cause too much suspicion, this Myth Master guy would catch on to what Luke really is, and others would probably treat him as some sort of genius or a science experiment. I can take his memories until his twenty-first birthday, and he can take on the quest.

"But Luke. Restoring your memories like that in one blow, which I plan to do, the moment you turn twenty-one, well that can cause some pretty bad problems. If you were, for example, to go insane, then I want compensation. You see Luke Castellan, if you never worked with Kronos and captured Artemis, one of my daughters wouldn't have died when she did. If you hadn't interfered, she was guaranteed a long happy life with the Hunters and my son would have been a much happier person than he is today. I hold you responsible, so if you mess up and don't live rightly through the process of having your memories returned, I'll take your life for my own and make sure you go straight to the Fields of Punishment, to spend the rest of your days."

Apollo and Osiris didn't look like they approved of the God's deal. Zeus and Hera seemed neutral about the whole thing and my father and Rachel were completely outraged.

"I accept." There was raised eyebrows and Hermes looked mortified.

"Luke, you don't have to-"

"Yes Hermes, I do. It's the only way he's going to agree to let me go anyway. But besides even that, it would be nice to live a few years where I didn't have to think about Mom…I suppose you're still going to be my father?"

Hermes stiffened at this. "Unless you would rather you had another Godly parent." He said, but I knew he would be devastated if I picked anyone else. But even though I knew this, I wanted to make him suffer a bit. My eyes lingered on Zeus and I actually had to think a bit. Hermes was probably the weakest of the Olympians. What did he give? Speed and athleticism. That could be gained from experience. What did Zeus or Poseidon give? Control over the sky and sea. But I had to make a decision.

"I suppose if I chose you, I would be more comfortable in my body. It would be more familiar." I think I saw Hera and Hermes both try to hide smiles. You could say what you liked about those two, but they really cared about family. I sighed, in total defeat. It was decided then. I would be reborn as Hermes' son and into the line of the Pharaohs. On my twenty-first birthday, I would receive the memories of my past life and I would begin to study the art of Egyptian magic and then I would lead eight people against 'The Myth Master' and possibly defeat him or fail. And if I did fail, I was doomed to the Field of Punishment for all of eternity. Wow the afterlife was really great.

_A/N- Slightly short in some ways, but way too much speech, right? Well if you managed to get through that. I assure you that the next chapter will be better. This is more of a prologue than anything. I hope you did enjoy the setting of this story though. _

_And! I haven't decided on seven of the characters that I'll be using as the prophecy characters. So, I thought that you guys could make characters for me to use. I want Two Roman Half-Bloods, Three Greek Half Bloods and Three magicians. I'll be looking for the most interesting or one that fits in with my criteria. I won't necessarily be using your character straight away, but they'll definitely appear at least once before chapter four or five. _

_Here's what I'm looking for;_

_Name:_

_Age:_

_Nationality:_

_Appearance:_

_Personality:_

_Hobbies/Interests:_

_Patron God: (So either parent or the God that the magician channels the powers of)._

_Powers and Abilities:_

_Weapon/Items: (Can be magical or non-magical. Especially needed for magicians.) _

_History: (What their life has been like up until the point in the book.)_

_Okay? Well good luck with that guys. Hope you Enjoyed, Thanks for Reading, Please Review! _


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N- Thank you. That's all I can say. Thank you. I got ten reviews for my first chapter, which is amazing. I also got some great characters, the only problems arising was that I have two characters who were apparently around in Luke's time, so I had to freeze both of them in time, in different ways. And I had to change a few details of the characters here and there. Mainly because I got a lot of Greeks, so I had to turn some into Roman. But they all worked really well! I've got a great character list. You'll see them, when they appear. And, just so you know, the next chapters will not take this long to get uploaded. I started this story at a bad time but the bad time's over now, so the updates will be more frequent. _

'Eight shall follow the Fallen Castellan. To victory or failure he shall lead them. The Two-faced one holds the key. And the Myth Master will bring misery.'

In my dream, I was running. There were about seven other people following behind me. Their faces were hidden. I peered into the endless darkness that lay behind the group and I could just barely make out the outlines of two other figures. One was massive, like as big as the Empire State building massive, and the other was a smallish guy holding onto to a knife. It gleamed, even in the darkness of the dream. I couldn't see the boy's face but I got a sense he was scared. And when I turned my back from the two, I could hear fast-paced footsteps. I turned and saw the boy with the knife, running towards me, moving faster than I could, holding the blade out in front of him, getting closer to me until-

"Happy Birthday!" I shot out of bed and almost right out of my skin. I heard laughter. My eyes shifted quickly to and from my cousin Maxie Danro and my mother Isabella Danro. My mother was holding a birthday cake and Maxie was chuckling silently.

I scowled at them. "Man, don't scare me like that. I almost died." I told them, to which I got rolled eyes in reply. I laughed and then took the small birthday cake that my mother was holding. She brushed her long strawberry blond hair out of her eyes and smiled at me.

Maxie sat down beside me in my bed. "Aw, you're so cute when you're scared. What would you ever do if you went to a scary movie? You'd be tackled by hundreds of girls." He chuckled again, as I shoved him off my bed.

Maxie was my cousin. He had come to live with me and my mom a few years earlier. We actually looked a bit alike, except Maxie had broader shoulders than I did and his whole body was a lot more relaxed. Plus his hair was a darker shade than mine. Oh yeah, he's also my half-brother. Long story, tell you later maybe.

My mom was still smiling at me while I was eating my cake, actually glowing and beaming with pride, might have been a better choice of words. It was like she was amazed I had lived this long. It wasn't like my life was dangerous or anything. Sure, some people might have broke under the pressure that I had been constantly placed with throughout my life and tried to kill themselves but life had never looked that bleak to me. I suppose I was just a tad bit more positive than most people or something.

"So you're twenty-one today Luke. How about after work, we go get you hammered?" Maxie joked, knowing full well that my there was no way in Hades that I was going to get drunk. My mom would have had a big celebration set up for me, just like every year.

I could tell that my mom wasn't sure if we were joking or not and that made the both of us burst into fresh rounds of laughter. But we reassured mom and she laughed along with us. After that Maxie and her both took their leave to give me some privacy to change and get ready to take on the world as a Twenty-One year old. A legal adult in all eyes of the law. For a few moments, I felt like I could carry the world on my shoulders. And then I frowned at my choice of words. It was a common enough phrase but sometimes when saying stuff like that, I got the strangest feeling of Déjá-vu. It happened all the time, so I usually just brushed it off, but how weird was it to feel like I had once carried the world on my shoulders at some point?

I dressed for work in my usual white shirt, dark blue jacket, trousers and a silly little hat with a miniature wing on each side of it. You see, I work in the mail business. Yeah, I know, not the most exciting job in the world, but it paid the bills and Maxie worked there too. Besides that, the two of us weren't actually mailmen, we worked on the business side of things, organizing everything and stuff of that sort. We're both pretty young, Maxie's only twenty-three, but the two of us are doing well for ourselves. And the two of us had both decided to go into different fields, as we got older. Maxie would do law, while I would do business management.

I found my way downstairs to find Maxie in his own uniform, eyeing my small birthday breakfast cake, greedily. Mom was laying the table and preparing the dishwater.

"Ready for work?" Maxie asked, splitting the cake between himself and me and then digging in.

"Yeah, we're working till four today right? Then we could back home for a little party?" Maxie nodded his head and stared into his cake. He wasn't blinking. Nor did it seem like he was concentrating.

"What's up with you?" I asked him, "You're spacing out." Maxie looked up at me, his confident demeanor suddenly restored.

"Oh it's nothing. Just thinking, you know?" Despite how Maxie may come across, I knew he was a worrier at heart; something must have been on his mind. Was it something I said?

"You two are going to be late." My mom whispered in my ear, as she took my plate from me. I looked up at the clock, which hung up on the wall opposite the table in the kitchen. She was right. Time to go.

"Come on." I called to Maxie, getting up to wait by the front door.

He finished what was on his plate in a hurry, and then jogged out the front door. "Bye Mom!" The two of us called before the door shut close behind us.

Yeah Maxie called my Mom, 'mom' as well. She was his aunt but his real Mom had cancer and died when he was thirteen. After that, he just disappeared for like seven years and was suddenly found in New York. There had been sightings of him all over America and he claims he doesn't remember anything from the time he was missing, but I wasn't so sure. Anyway, after the doctors had been convinced that after his Mother's death, Maxie went off trying to make things right in his head and when he had finally accepted her death, he came back and his mind had repressed the time when he went off.

That was three years ago and so far, he still apparently didn't remember a thing. My Mom had taken him in, since his Dad…my Dad had vanished. You see me and Maxie share a Dad. That's why, despite being cousins, we're also half-brothers. Father, dearest, got my mom's sister pregnant, they had a relationship and suddenly his fancy turned to her sister and a couple of years after the birth of their child, he also got my mother pregnant.

Now, I might have been able to forgive my father for doing something like that. You can't help who you fall in love with right? But, as I learned, my Father did not love my mother or my aunt. He abandoned them both. Even his wife, gravely ill, unable to look after her child who was then forced to fend for himself. That is why I hate my father. To do that to anyone is completely unforgiveable.

At least, I think so. My mother and Maxie don't seem to share my ideas. They both insist that my Father had a good reason for the things he did. Maxie especially, I'm amazed at how forgiving he is. In his head, a family should be united, no matter what they may have done. It just doesn't make sense to me. He has more reason than I do to be angry but he's not. I suppose…he's just a better person than I am.

The two of us arrived at the post office branch that the two of us worked at. The place was full of people. The kind of the people that worked at this particular post office were those that couldn't get jobs anywhere else, not because they were lazy or unqualified, but because they were in some way deformed or something.

For example, some were in wheelchairs, others had physical anomalies that I couldn't describe. Sometimes it was difficult to look at them. I don't know why exactly but it was like some force was preventing me from looking at them.

Maxie and I parted, as our offices were in different directions. "Good morning Mr. Danro." Gorgeous, long red hair topped a woman who sat at a desk outside my office.

"Good morning Ella." I said to my assistant, as I walked through the door to my office.

"You have mail." She shouted at me.

"Have you read it yet?" I called back, chuckling at my assistant's bad habit of reading everything she could get her hands on.

"Not today," She said, giggling, "It seemed important, so I didn't."

I frowned slightly. I wasn't expecting any important letters, so it didn't make much sense for there to be any, especially not three as I saw on my desk.

Among the clutter of envelopes, pens and documents that crowded my desk, there were three letters all addressed to me. The words on the envelopes were handwritten, all elegant in their own way. They looked out of place compared to all the other envelopes that had on them the bleak print that only a computer can create.

I took to the first, producing a small sharp letter opener and tore into it. Inside was what seemed to be parchment. Was this some sort of joke? The contents only contained a few words.

'Happy Birthday, dearest Luke. Ps. Good luck.' What was this exactly? Some sort of birthday message sent to my work. Who wrote it? There wasn't a name nor a return addresses. In fact, none of the envelopes had them, or even a stamp. Had someone from work sent them? Is that why Ella hadn't read them? And what did it mean by 'good luck?'

I went onto the next one. Again another piece of parchment, but this was dyed or possibly stained black, with white writing to stand out. 'I've held up my end of the bargain. Are you ready to play our little game?' This one definitely wasn't a birthday message, but what did it mean by bargain and game? This didn't make any sense.

The beginnings of panic beginning to take over me, I grabbed the last letter and ripped it open with my bare hands. This time it was just regular paper but the words were the most shocking. 'Catch me if you can.'

"What kind of sick joke is this?" I suddenly exploded. Ella came rushing into my office, looking worried.

"Mr. Danro, what's wrong?" She asked, her eyes moving about twitchily, searching for a threat.

"It's these letters," I told her. "The letters you told me about. Who gave them to me?"

Ella shook her head. "I don't know. The letters were under your door, when I came in this morning. Someone must have put them there after I left yesterday or before I came in today. I'm sorry."

I shook my head and raised my hand. "No no, it's not your fault. You have no need to be sorry, it's just there's no return addresses on any of these or any stamps. But I bet it was just Maxie playing a joke on me. I'll go talk to him after work."

"Ah, okay then," but sometimes struck me as odd. Ella looked strangely uneasy at the look of these mysterious letters. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was wondering if Ella knew more than she was letting on. She always seemed to be so omnificent about everything else, although maybe that's what was troubling her.

And with that thought, I buried myself in my work, trying to keep my mind off the distressing topic and more on happier things. I wasn't about to let anything ruin my birthday, not even God himself if I could help it.

After that, I sent Ella back to get on with her work but, although I tried, I couldn't concentrate. There was something eating away at me in the back of my head. It wasn't just these weird letters…something else was going on here. For example, I felt like I was being watched today and then there was just this utter feeling of dread that I felt inside, as if somewhere inside of me, I knew that today, no matter how hard, I tried was not going to be a good day. Damn, what a bad attitude to have on your birthday.

I picked through the pieces of paperwork on my desk, trying to find the most interesting to do but there was not a single thing that I found even remotely interesting. That was until a name caught my eye. 'Mrs. Annabeth Jackson.'

The document was some sort of important degree addressed to an architect. All of the really important stuff was sent to my office, so I could check it out. Now, normally, something like this would never be what I would class as 'exciting' but there was something about this particularly architect that interested me. The name sounded familiar. I wonder if she had designed something I would have seen or maybe been to.

Eventually, I signed the document after looking at it for the longest amount of time and shifted through the other documents afterwards, waiting idly for the moment when I could just pack up and go home. And yet, that made me feel like I was a schoolchild. A twenty-one year old, with the mind of a schoolchild. I laughed at that and so walked out of my office with a smile on my face.

"Goodbye Ella. I'll see on Monday," I called going out the door.

"Goodbye Luke. I wish you well. Good luck." I turned sharply and saw Ella's face warped by sadness. Tears were running down her cheeks. I was about to ask what was wrong when she caught my eye and answered the question before I could ask it. "Oh, it's nothing. I was just reading this book. It's so romantically tragic!" She sighed, dreamily.

I raised one of my eyebrows at her. That was a lie. That much I could tell, there was something off about Ella today too. Honestly, what was wrong with the world?

I met with Maxie outside of the building and, wordlessly, we set off home together. "How was work?" Maxie asked me, attempting small-talk as he often did on our way to and from work.

"Nothing special. Pretty boring actually," I yawned, as if just to emphasize this point.

"I see, well I'll bet Mom's got the house ready for your little party. The presents will all be there. Are you ready for that?"

"You make it sound like it's going to be challenging task, I know it's not exactly what most twenty-one year olds would be doing on their birthday but it's tradition. Aren't you usually the one going on and on about how important family is?"

"I didn't mean it like that,"

"Okay, so what did you mean?"

"I meant…Luke are you prepared to die and rot in hell for the rest of your existence?"

"Huh? What did you just say?"

"Never mind. Forget I said anything,"

But I couldn't just put it off like that. I had been forgetting or ignoring all these little signs that everyone around me acted like today was the apocalypse or something. Or…that I was going to die today. "Do you have the 'eyes'?" I asked my cousin, half-joking.

"I don't know when you're going to die, Luke." His joking demeanor from this morning had vanished. "I just…you'll see soon enough. Just be patient." He pleaded with me.

The tone of his voice held so much sadness, sounded so pathetic, that I did just what he asked of me. I closed the drawer on my questions and kept it under lock and key, for the whole way home. But I can't help thinking now, that if he had fed me just a small clue that the impact of knowing everything wouldn't have been so hard. What Maxie didn't realise was that my old memories weren't gone but simply lay below the surface. A few of them had probably gotten out every now and again, like how I had recognized Annabeth's name.

The two of us had finally arrived home. The whole place was decorated with lights and paper party decorations. On the kitchen table, there was small building of presents awaiting me to open them. My mother had been waiting for me and she was smiling from ear to ear, speaking quickly and excitedly.

I smiled back at my mother but I noticed things like the solidness of her eyes and how the corners of her mouth twitched, showing how her smile was fake. 'So even Mom is on this.' I concluded, sadly taking in this information.

"Can we just get this over with?" My voice was a whisper but it contained all the anger and frustration I had gained over the day from everybody who was keeping this big secret from me.

My Mom looked hurt and her eyes went from me to Maxie who confirmed what she thought. I knew that they were all lying to me. I just wanted to know the truth.

My mother pointed to the pile of presents on the table. "The long one." She managed but I could hear her voice breaking up. She was crying. But I didn't understand. Everything was happening too fast and none of it was making sense. How could I figure anything out?

My eyes followed her finger and spotted the present that she was talking about. It stood out because it wasn't wrapped like the others. It was covered in fig leaves and tied up with string. The method certainly seemed odd but not completely insane, as if I remembered that a type of people long ago did this very thing because paper was so valuable to them.

I stumbled over to it, almost as if I was in a trance or being willed to do so by some powerful being. Maxie came forward, he looked really frightened…troubled. He seemed like he wanted to stop me but he restrained himself and simply said. "Be prepared."

My eyes went to the long oddly presented package and I tore into it, ready for this mystery to be over. I think there might have been seen a card but at that moment, I chose to ignore it.

When the last few leaves and odd pieces of string fell to the floor at my feet, I froze. My blood ran cold and I stopped moving. Something switched on in my head and suddenly my brain was overloaded with thoughts. So much so that it couldn't decide on any choice of acting. All I could do was stare. And listen (I noticed a loud, high cruel laugh was coming from somewhere, maybe inside my head).

"Luke…?" My mother's voice.

"Luke! Snap out of it! Say something, damnit!" Maxie's voice.

Both were irrelevant. All that seemed to matter to me now was the 'long package.' A scythe, part of it made of steel, part of it made of bronze, neither material was of the mortal world. I took the blade in my hand and whispered its name, "Backbiter…"

I took a step back from the table, raised my head and howled in pain as twenty-three years of painful memories flowed into me. The pain was enough to drive anyone insane but as I remembered, if I did, the world would end and I would be blame, spending my existence in the fields of Punishment.

"Somebody…help me…"


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N- Don't trust me anymore. I'm really sorry about, well everything. I actually said updates would be quicker last time and then this happened. I don't even...urg. Life is harsh sometimes. School life, home life. Everything was against me even writing at all. I've really hated every moment of this, but I HOPEFULLY am back in control now and I'll be trying to dedicate my summer to getting caught up with my writing. No promises unfortunately, because you'll never know what God will through at me next but at the very least, I've really gotten into Luke's mindset now, so that was a positive of this. Really hope this chapter was worth the wait you guys. _

"Ahhhh!"

The pain of the memories rushing through me brought me to my knees, disabling my ability to speak, to think, to breathe. I couldn't do anything but scream and writher in pain on the floor. My blade had sprawled away from me but that didn't stop the memories of my past life flow into me. These memories of mine flashed before my eyes, returning as one painful image after the other.

I was rolled onto my back, probably by Maxie and saw my mother's face. Or the mother of Luke Danro. However, as I continued to stare at her, Isabella Danro's shape transfigured and turned into a different woman. A woman with a wild look in her eye that made it seem she was in as much pain as I was. One with wild white hair that stuck out at all ends. May Castellan...

May Castellan was my mother...no, then who was Isabella Danro? Also my mother or an imposter? Was that right? I didn't know. Then again, perhaps May had been the imposter. I certainly felt...no remembered enough of a hatred for her. Why would I hate my mother? There was a reason...

The woman I thought to be my mother moved towards me, arms open, with the intent to embrace me. No! I moved away quickly. The pain still stuck with me but the fear for this woman drove me to move instinctively. Maxie moved towards me, while also placing a hand around his aunt, moving her behind him, as if he was protecting her. Protecting her from...me?

I realised I was something like May Castellan. A crazed, animal like creature that most people couldn't bear to look at because they feared that they would trigger some sort of violent reaction from the creature. I had to concentrate. I could not allow myself to become like my mother. My old mother. This was confusing and it made my head split as I tried to make sense of everything around me.

I backed away from my half-brother and mother. I held my head in my hands and tried to focus but the sea of memories inside of my head was not easy to manage. It seemed pratically impossible to sort through the scenes I saw and try to pick out which ones were from this life and which ones were from a past life.

"Luke," Maxie said coming closer and reaching his hand out towards me "Please, just let us help you." He begged however my mind was in no fit state to be able to comply with his wishes. Maxie's form began to shift into countless others. The likes of the Stoll brothers and Chris Rodriguez all stood where Maxie stood. My past brothers...

"Ahhh!" I screamed, unable to do much else. "Leave me alone!" I managed to get out. Not talking to my mother or half-brother but to the memories that had come and destroyed my life. It had not been exciting or glamerous but it had been a better life than I had as Luke Castellan and Luke Danro had no need for the world of Gods.

_"I would not think like that if I were you master Danro or would you rather be called Castellan?"_ A high cold laugh followed the question. I looked around but I could not find a source of the laugh and as I looked around, the laugh grew louder.

"Luke...?" Maxie's voice, now begging of him. Only Maxie's voice was not coming out of Maxie's body. Rather it was a body with a much more familiar look to it. Athletic body, shortly cropped blond hair. He would be handsome, if not for a pair of golden eyes and a scar running down one side of his face.

"Kronos!" I managed to scream and backed away. Yet again, fear was fighting against everything else that was raging in my body, forcing it to move in jerky motions. My eyes locked on to the scythe that I had tossed away. I had been born with ADHD. A disorder that I now remembered being associated with half-bloods, giving them instincts to use in a fight, in order to survive.

'Kronos' moved closer, reading my movements and reacting to them. 'May Castellan' left the room, running, leaving the scene. Leaving her son yet again. I howled in anger and used that rage, those feelings of abandonment and hatred to fuel my body and I moved quickly, swinging the scythe. All I cared about was returning Kronos to a billion tiny pieces like he belonged.

_"No, stop it Luke. You don't know what you're doing!" _Another voice inside my head. This one was warmer than the last but for some reason it made me feel sick. Hatred boiled up my blood, at the mere sound of this second voice.

"Shut up!" I shouted at the voice and I heard laughter to follow my outburst. 'Kronos' looked at me warily. He didn't make a move towards me, nor did he retreat. He kept himself in a crouch, as if he were a cat getting ready to pounce on a prey. But I was no prey. I was a predator.

I swung my scythe with the intention of cutting off 'Kronos'' head, but he moved quickly, far quicker than any mortal. He had only moved a few inches but it seemed more like he had teleported rather than moved on his own two feet. He gave me a steely look. "I'm sorry Luke," he said, before rushing me.

The two of us fell down to the ground and Backbiter sprawled away from me. 'Kronos' and I struggled against one another, punching, kicking and doing anything else we could to gain an advantage. I pushed 'Kronos' into a coffee table and he returned the favour by jumping up kicking me into a wall. We continued to wrestle and fight in that manner, but no blood was being drawn and in my state I could feel myself losing the battle and my opponent was holding back.

_"He would never try to really hurt you Luke. Remember, he's simply trying to help." _One of the voices in my head made another appearance and the annoying, useless comments sprawled countless memories of being scowled by a godly figure. Hermes was the one who was trying to calm me down, I realised. But why should I listen to him? He was telling me that Kronos would never hurt me. Similar to himself perhaps? All of it was lies.

"Everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie, Hermes," I told him. "You said you would protect me; you lied. You said you would protect mom; you lied. You said things would get better; you lied! Why should I listen to anything you have to say?"

"When have you ever listened to anything he really has to say?" 'Kronos' retorted, fiercely. I stood for a moment, completely dumbstruck. Now, Kronos, lord of the titans was giving me parental counciling. This coming from a man who attempted to eat his three sons?

And then the pain seemed to still for a moment. The cloud in my mind cleared a little and I realised that despite Kronos being the master manipulator that he is; this wasn't his style. This wasn't him and I saw Maxie stand where Kronos once did. "I don't...someone help me!" The pain flooded back to me. Everything was too confusing. I couldn't make sense of it.

_"I don't understand," _Hermes' voice _"I thought there was progress being made." _

_"Please Hermes, don't be a fool. You should hardly be interfering as it is. The world has to be in balance. The more you interfere, the harder it will be on him. Luke's little mind is in jumbles. He was messed up to begin with and now; well let's just say if he doesn't go insane, at the very least he'll get a nice white room and there will be lots of people to take care of him once he gets there." _

_"I have faith in my son, Hades. He will pull through this and he will be the hero of the prophecy and save us." _

Prophecy? What prophecy? I tried to remember. "The myth master...eight half-bloods?" I said aloud to myself, but I got some nods of encouagement from Maxie.

"That's right Luke, please you have to get a grip. For everyone's sake. You have to control yourself." Maxie pleaded but everything was easier said than done.

I tried to calm down and I tried to think. Some parts were clear now. I was a half-blood. I was meant to lead eight other half-blood to fight against someone who was messing with the order of the world of the Gods and mortals. Someone was trying to bring reality itself to its knees and I was supposed to somehow stop him. How was I supposed to do that? And how was having these memories of a past life supposed to help? They only made things worse. I couldn't handle anymore pressure on my self.

"Luke, it's okay," Maxie shushed him, like a mother with a newborn. "It's okay." He repeated soothingly. He took Luke by the hand and led him away from the wreckage of the living room. He brought him into the bathroom and Maxie almost immediately regretted his actions.

I saw myself and I almost didn't recognise the person I saw in the bathroom mirror. Luke Danro seemed quite similar to Luke Castellan. They both had blond hair and blue eyes. They both had athletic bodies, although Luke Danro's body didn't quite match up to the level of fitness that he had in his previous life. Probably due to the lack of fighting and what-not. Another difference was that Luke Danro had piercings and a few tattoos and Luke Castellan did not. But the biggest difference was the lack of scar running down his face. And for some reason, this detail made me very conscious of a difference between what he was and what he had been.

And suddenly, yet again, nothing made sense. "I don't understand!" I wailed. "Who am I? Am I Luke Castellan or am I Luke Danro? What day is it? What year? What am I supposed to do? Why...why me? Why?" I held my ears to my head, as if that would help in any way possible. My body became shaky. My battle instincts were going into overdrive. My mind saw everything as a potential threat and yet some small parts of it were fighting back. The only problem was; they were losing and it just made it, in my mind, even more confusing.

More high, cold laughter filled my head, making my headaches worse. The voice sounded like Kronos', but it was slightly difference. There wasn't that completely evil feeling that the Lord of Time gave out. I matched the laugh with Hades and tried to think why he would be laughing at me.

Again, I had a hard time shifting through the memories to find the right one. Usually whenever I tried to remember my past life, as Luke Castellan, the memories of Luke Danro would intervene, making it difficult to remember anything. Annoyingly, my encounters with Hermes and Kronos seemed to be completely etched into my mind. I could barely remember my time with Thalia and Annabeth and that made me feel pathetic. The fact that I would dare forget them; it was disgraceful.

_"You can do it!" _

Words of support. But these didn't come from my father. I couldn't match the voice correctly though. It sounded familiar but it was slightly different than the voice might have belonged to.

I continued to try and think and eventually I found it. I remembered why Hades was laughing. If I didn't Hades would keep true to our deal and send me to the fields of punishment for all eternity. I supposed I probably would have deserved it but both Lukes. Luke Castellan and Luke Danro agreed there was still time to change. To fix what was wrong. And that allowed the answer to shine through. If I was to get to a point where my two minds could be at peace I would seem something to join them. Something that they would have in common, besides from the obvious. Something that would represent both Castellan and Danro.

I tried to focus my mind, looking for the answer. It was a difficult thing to do, as it was asking what really represented myself. Almost like a true name...a true name. I looked into the mirror, looking at myself properly, probably for the first time ever. I began to smile. "Luke...?" Maxie sounded hopeful but he froze as he saw my reflection in the mirror. It was no good natured smile, rather it was the smile of a madman. "Luke, what are you planning to do?" He asked, suddenly very serious. Maxie's problem, I found out, was that he was too trusting, especially of family members. Feigning innocence, I pretended to be very put together and with one swift motion, I had Maxie over my knee and withering on the ground beneath me. I smiled, sadistically. Like I said, I was a predator.

I calmly left the bathroom and returned to the living room. There was a woman in there trying to make some sort of attempt to clean the mess Maxie and I had made.

"Hello Isabella Danro. Lovely night, isn't it?" I asked, politely. Isabella seemed frightened by me. Maybe she was afraid of what might be of me. Or perhaps she was more scared that the son that she had raised for twenty-one years was now almost a complete stranger to her. "I'm sorry but there are just a few things I can't avoid. Some things I need to do to make sense of my life. One of these things...is this."

I picked up Backbiter. Ms Danro's eyebrows burrowed in confusion and then suddenly her eyes shot open in shock as she saw me raise the blade to my own face and make a long deep cut in the side of my face with the scythe. In exactly the same place and exactly the same size that Luke Castellan once had a scar. And all the while, I laughed. Not crazy, like a madman, although I could certainly see why people would think so. I laughed in victory. This was something Hades hadn't expected me to do. He hadn't expected me to make the connection between my new and old life. And by doing so, I could feel myself become calmer. There was blood pouring down my face but I couldn't do anything about that. Now that I was thinking clearer, I realised a few things. And other things needed sorting out.

"Hades. Hermes." I called out "And anyone else who wants to join us. You're welcome to it." I disappeared into the bathroom for a few moments to retrieve Maxie, and shoulder to shoulder we came out to face Hades, Hermes, Rachel and Percy Jackson. Somehow I wasn't surprised.

Maxie was barely able to stand and had to sit down, whether or not it was because of the damage that I had done to him or the fact that this may have been the first time he had ever seen his father, I wasn't sure. Speaking of Hermes...

"Come here. Let me heal that. I have some medicene from Asclepius that will help." Hermes said, coming closer to me. Yet again, he had adopted his doting father personality while around me. I grabbed his hand, before he could reach into a messenger bag, containing all of Hermes' deliveries.

"Don't. That would defeat the purpose!" I scolded him, nastily. Honestly, Hermes and me had to have one of the worst father and son relationships of all time. Even when I hadn't remembered him, I had hated him. Hermes looked crestfallen but he then turned to his other son. I had already figured out that Hermes had to have been Maxie's father too. Hermes had probably had him watch over me and, concerning all that time when he was missing, well there was only one place he could have been.

I walked towards the person I knew had to Percy Jackson. The black hair and sea green eyes were a dead giveaway. Percy was into his fourties now, but the years had been kind to him. He had wrinkles around his eyes which showed he still smiled a lot and recalling a memory from today, I realised he had married Annabeth. I couldn't say he didn't have good taste in girls. "How's Camp doing? I heard you had some pretty wild adventures while I was gone." I said, making it sound like I had just gone away on some trip.

Percy seemed a bit taken aback by how casual I was being but he just smiled, laughed and nodded like the idiot he was. "Yeah, there's been some tough times. But you...what you're doing...I can't say much more than good luck." I nodded, sensing how uncomfortable Percy was. I supposed that Gods were used to seeing each other in different forms. But a mortal seeing another mortal in a completely different body, especially after they had died, well it must have been very disorientating.

"Hey, remind me, after this whole mess is over to make dinner for you and Annabeth or something, okay?" I told Percy "I mean, you've saved my life, what twice now? Probably more." I smiled at him and Percy's eyes took on a light of understanding. He could see that I was happier person the way I was now. Or at least I could be happy.

After my words with Percy, I turned on Hades. "Our contract isn't broken yet is it?" I asked him. He just chuckled in reply. "And you knew about Maxie. You knew about Percy and Hermes and yet you didn't do anything to make it any worse on me?"

Hades shrugged and raised an eyebrow. "What's your point kid?" He asked, arrogantly and for a few seconds I thought I might have been wrong but then I was sure he didn't know about Rachel's interference with my dream the night before. She showed me some more of what she had seen.

"My point, Hades," I said, suddenly turning deadly serious and cold, more like the Luke who served Kronos "Is that you are a coniving, greedy, asshole who would never let someone beat them. You let me live tonight but you have something else planned." It wasn't a question or even an accusation. It was a statement of fact.

Hades smiled wickedly and procceded to lift me up by my throat. Hermes and Percy moved quickly but Hades summoned flames to surround the two of us, blocking the others off. "You always were a little smartass. Well whatever Luke. I don't care. Live your life as long as you can. Try to fufill your prophecy but just remember what I say. The world needs balance." Hades suddenly turned towards Hermes. "And if you're to die, well then you can blame your precious father!" He laughed loudly and dropped me to the ground. Before anyone could do anything, Hades unveiled the symbol of power that I had once stolen. He put it on and in a flash disappeared.

"He's probably gone to hide off in some hole in the Underworld." Percy told me. I thought about that possibility but for some reason I couldn't be sure that was the truth this time. And for once, I think I felt fear for a God. Hades wasn't going to give up that easily. He had a plan and if it were successful, it would surely result in my death. That was one thing I was sure about.

I let out a huge sigh. I was exhausted, physically and mentally and I didn't have the energy to worry about Hades right now. My father came over to me and kissed my forehead. "Sleep dear Luke. You will need your strength. Besides we still have some tricks up our sleeves." I saw a sneaky grin flash across Hermes' face but I didn't have the energy to question him any further about it. And by the time I awoke days later, I would have forgotten all about it, as Maxie and I were about to head out on a journey that would decide the fate of everyone's existence as we knew it.


End file.
